It's cos of what I was saying earlier in the season. Sagna leaving meant that we no longer have a defensive minded RB who sits back, so both FBs are going forwards and exposing our defence in behind each wing, making Mertesacker suffer with his lack of pace. Monreal is defensive minded so with our RB bombing forwards, we still have 3 at the back and our CBs aren't being as stretched by having to cover the wings on the counter. So currently Gibbs is not the ideal fit for our team unless we play a defensive minded RB, which we currently don't have

Hey bro, yeh of course they are Go back and watch the match vs City where everybody praised Coquelin for making some tackles. We won that game because Cazorla marked Silva out of the game, Wenger instructed him how to do it and he pulled it off beautifully. Silva operates in the right side channels between CB and FB and Cazorla collected the ball off him and intercepted the pass time and time again.

Coquelin is doing some great dirty work and is quite mobile, my biggest criticism before going on loan was that he was too static. He's fixed that, now he acts as a decent shield but he's yet to come up against a player like Matic, I'm pretty sure if Toure had been playing he would've been severely tested. Let's see how we do against Spurs, I expect either Coquelin or Cazorla to be instructed to track Erikson's movement in between our lines.

Btw, it seems Wenger found a solution to having an aggressive RB that exposes us. Monreal while being better at attacking than Gibbs is actually more defensive minded and less likely to be caught high up the pitch so we once again have our lopsided defence, only it's been reversed with the RB now the attacking wingback

Hey mate, I'll post here since it's wasted on most of the forum. I was mad like everybody else at this 4-1-4-1 formation so I sat down and tried to figure out why we're using it. Here's what I came up with.

2 main reasons, Firstly Wenger is responding to the fact we got spanked away from home vs the big boys last season by playing a more defensive formation, since it allows for a DM and 2 defensive lines of 4. This will lead to us being less likely to get caught on the counter which is how most of the big boys obliterated us, 3 of Liverpool's 5 goals were counters, plus the 2 corners from fkn Skrtel.

But the main reason is the loss of Sagna, or to put it more accurately, the lack of a defensive fullback on the right. Most of the big teams in modern day tactical football have 1 thing in common that not a lot of people realise. Their defenses are lop-sided. Teams are about balance, this balance is achieved by having on one side, an aggressive fullback that overlaps and a winger that cuts inside and on the other, a defensive-minded fullback and a wide playing winger. In our case this was Gibbs + Cazorla and Sagna + Walcott. Sagna was defensive minded and this is particularly important to us because of the fact on the right side of defence, the CB is Mertesacker. Currently with the aggressive Debuchy we have 2 fullbacks bombing forwards and 2 CBs having to cover an awful lot of extra ground, 1 of which is very slow. This lop-sidedness is also true in most CB pairings, 1 fast man marking, intercepting player and 1 positional, tall strong CB that holds the line.

If you go back and watch the games again, Debuchy's been caught out a few times already, too high up the pitch, reminiscent of when Lewandowski caught us with our pants down after Sagna bombed forward and we lost possession. We lost that game 2-1 in the dying minutes. This is what Wenger's trying to address I believe. He's trying to make sure we don't play in such a way to get smashed by good teams that hit us hard on the counter. The game vs City is a good illustration. At no point did that match resemble the drubbing we copped 6-3 last season and we are still undefeated despite Everton catching Debuchy out on the counter. The idea of playing the 4-1-4-1 to use a DM to sweep the back, while using 2 banks of 4 players and squeezing the space in between our lines is a good idea but it brings new issues.

So a few big problems are in the way now - How do we best use Ozil in a 4-1-4-1 or 4-4-2? I think that's why Wenger's still playing him regardless of poor performances. Simply because he's too good and too pricey to leave out of the grand plan and so Wenger must find a way to get all his stars in the new formation, a very tricky prospect that will take time.

Problem 2: How do we solve this defensive issue? Mertesacker's being left with far too much ground to cover and it's wrecking our defensive effort. It's my hope that Wenger sees Arteta as the full time DM in front of the back 4, dictating play by supplying to the wings and acting as the link when passing out of defence. This would make sense since the majority of passes from the back are between Mertesacker and Arteta. Arteta's ability to make extremely accurate long balls(90% success rate usually) would help with this also and he has the discipline and running rate to cover Mertesacker effectively.

And lastly: What do we do to ensure only 1 fullback is further up the field? I think Walcott will help with this cos he's the only true winger we have, which may just make Wenger shackle Debuchy into staying back and keeping Gibbs as the one constantly forwards. Gibbs also has more pace to get back and cover Koscielny and it would make sense since our LW cuts in which allows Gibbs a natural overlap, whereas Debuchy would be running into the same space as the wide playing Walcott, much like Poldi and Santos used to be awful together. This may even see Wenger revert to our 4-2-3-1 but I don't think so. I think all those people whining for a true DM are going to get one, though it's gonna' be Arteta for this season at least. He is captain after all.

I fully expect Cazorla to be no. 1 LW. I'm hoping to see Ozil in the middle with Ramsey showing more defensive discipline as a b2b. Wilshere and Ramsey can rotate, Ozil and Cazorla can rotate, Welbeck, Sanchez and Walcott can rotate. This is my hope for the team. I think that would be a very flexible midfield and since Wenger tried so hard to get Carvalho this season, I think a stronger DM is high on his list.

Let me know what you think, I mulled this over for ages, it's the best explanation I can come up with